These things occurred on Monday March 3, 2025 in Tauranga, New Zealand (Cruise)
When Chaim and I were planning our yearlong adventure, we figured building in a cruise after five weeks in India would be a great way to help give me some personal time while the boys hung out and were overseen by other adults in the youth lounge. We also felt like it was a great way to experience a cruise and get a taste for different areas of Oceania without having to pack up every few days. Overall, it was a great choice. The boys, especially Matanel, loved the youth lounge and the opportunity to hang out with a few other children on a regular basis playing games and participating in crafting activities. Even with everything going on, the boys were still able to complete their schoolwork.
We all agreed we’d love to try another cruise, but perhaps a shorter one because two weeks with multiple sea days was a bit much for some of us – okay just me. The reality is we had an insular room with no window. We could feel the rocking of the ship and the lack of a window made time feel elusive, even with our watches and phones keeping time for us. If we were to do it again, I would pay every cent I had for a window. Heck, I’d sell my own leg for a balcony.
The following are excursions and experiences from our first week of the cruise: Below is Entry 1
One of the first things one notices about New Zealand is the country’s commitment to honoring its native people. Signs are posted in English and Māori. Names for different areas, including the name of the country, are used interchangeably by almost everyone. There is always an acknowledgement of the native people before every show (which you can also find in movie credits when a New Zealand organization is involved). New Zealand in Māori is Aotearoa. I have always found Māori history fascinating though I admittedly knew very little. I was most excited about our trip to Tauranga where we would learn more about Māori culture at a meeting house on Māori tribal land.
On our bus to Tauranga, a lovely Māori guide taught us a Māori song, vocabulary, and rituals we would need to know to signal that we were coming in peace upon our arrival. Everyone on the bus worked hard to remember how to pronounce the words. Interestingly, the transliteration of a “wh” sound was an “f” sound. I struggled with that one!
The Māori people are steeped in both Māori and general culture. Per the Māori tribal leader who spoke to us, the general culture is also referred to as the “colonizer” culture. The chief, his wife, and their son greeted our group. The chief spoke in Māori which his 13-year-old son translated for us afterward. Both the chief and his son were very charismatic. The chief’s wife sang to welcome us as well. Throughout her son she shook her hands. Later, we learned that the Māori people believe deeply in nature and constant movement. The shaking of the hands represents the movement in nature as well as the life force in each person. After the chief spoke, our voluntold group “leader” responded with the proper ritual and we sang our song. Our visit was thankfully received as a peaceful one.
We were invited into the tribe’s eating house where we were served biscuits, tea, and coffee. After the snack we were encouraged to peruse the art stalls that were set up along the far end of the hall. The pieces were beautiful. While looking at the jewelry pieces we learned that jade was more important than gold. In fact, gold was so common in the area before the British discovered the Māori lands and pillaged the gold. Their jade jewelry pieces were stunning. As we were leaving the eating house a woman called Chaim over and gifted us a small art piece because it had two parents and four children. We had no interest in purchasing it and tried to decline. However, she insisted we take it because it represented our family. Such a sweet gesture.
From the eating house we walked to the meeting house. The Māori meeting house is a sacred space where totem poles hold up the ceiling and carved panels with ancient stories cover the walls from floor to ceiling. According to the chief, the community in Tauranga is descended from two canoes (each canoe containing members of the Māori tribe) that landed in Tauranga in the 1200s. The chief shared that Māori history has always been an oral history. Maintaining records has always been challenging because it is a cultural practice to leave items from the past in the past. Instead of trying to preserve relics, they bury them and create anew.
I had noticed a church on the tribal land, but the chief kept mentioning the Māori gods and spirits when he spoke. In the meeting house I asked if the Māori practice both paganism and Christianity. He looked at me amused and deferred to his wife as “the Christian in the room”. His wife answered by explaining how many Māori practice Christianity in addition to acknowledging the Māori gods and spirits ever since the “colonizers brought the Bible”. There was so much to unpack in what they said, offering a small window into the tensions and challenges the Māori must face as a people, as families, and as individuals.
When our time at the meeting house ended, the boys reflected how different the Māori were from the tribesmen they’d met in Tanzania. In Tanzania we met and learned from tribespeople who were still living the same way they lived 10,000 years ago. The boys were surprised when they learned that the Māori people live a fully modern lifestyle.
From the meeting house we bused to a high school to enjoy a student performance of traditional Māori songs, dances, and a haka. The women were taught a dance with a ball and string that were historically used to strengthen warrior’s wrists. The men were taught how to perform a haka. Eitan and Amichai, ever eager to dance, joined for both and hammed it up!
Next, we drove to a lookout point with a gorgeous view and then back to the ship. After lunch, we changed into our bathing suits and hit the beach. While Chaim helped Shai, Matanel, and Eitan make sandcastles, Amichai and I talked while walking along the beach looking for neat shells and other interesting objects. In addition to the stunning shells, we discovered an assortment of oyster shells, crab skeletons with pincers, a drowned bird, the vertebrae of a large fish (we assumed!), a dead starfish, and some strange mushrooms floating in the water. We’d never seen so much variety on one beach.
Before heading back to the ship, Eitan bravely jumped off the pier into the cold water when no one else would dare.
